Codename X
by Syckle
Summary: REWRITEN Please go to the story "Battle Not With Monsters" for the new draft of this fic, thanks.
1. Stranger Danger

_Disclaimer: Only the original characters belong to me, other than that, everything is copyrighted to DC comics. _

_This First chapter is meant to be a sort of intro, so no real storyline reveals yet, sorry folks._

Chapter One: 

**Stranger Danger**

Titans Tower was quiet, very quiet, maybe too quiet.

Raven walked down the hall, heading to bathroom, nose, as always, buried in a huge book. She glanced up as she passed the Titan's titular living room, but it was empty, sighing, she entered the restroom.

A minute or two later she was out, book hovering in front of her now, and she floated out to sit on the couch. She couldn't sense her friends anywhere, and there seemed to be no note, she'd been meditating all morning and now was unsure if she'd missed anything. The half-demon girl frowned, though usually she'd refuse the offer to go for pizza or hang out somewhere, it was always nice to know that the others had the courtesy to ask her, to know that they'd enjoy her company. It seemed this time however they'd decided that there was no need to ask when the answer was clear.

The lavender-haired teen sat for another minute in silence, with the gigantic flat-screen TV looming over her as she just contemplated the stillness so rarely found in the normally heavily-trafficked room. The only sound was the occasion growl of the refrigerator and the low hum of the security systems. Finally, Raven stood up and decided to make some tea before she was tempted to turn on the television or boot up one of Beast Boy's video games.

She shuddered at the thought of it.

-------

Meanwhile, downtown at the mall, the other four Teen Titans were browsing a small video store, trying to decide on what to rent, Beast Boy and Cyborg were furiously yelling out a dispute over a movie in the comedy section while the couple of Robin and Starfire happily wasted their time pretending to search for something, all the while casting glances at eachother.

"I DON'T CARE _WHAT_ THE CRITICS SAY! I'M NOT WATCHIN' THIS!" Cy bellowed, holding the DVD _Tropic Thunder _in his hand so tightly that the green changeling in front of him feared it may shatter.

"B-but Cy!"

"NO BUTS! I'M NOT WATCHING ANY MOVIE WITH A WHITE GUY PRETENDING TO BE A BLACK GUY!"

"But it's part of the joke!"

"I AIN'T LAUGHING!"

"Not yet, but it's got Jack Black and-"

"IS THERE A BLACK GUY PLAYING A WHITE GUY!? NO!? I THINK _THAT_ WOULD BE FUNNY! OR MAYBE A BLACK GUY PLAYING A _GREEN_ GUY!?"

They went back and forth like this for several minutes, Robin, who would usually be the first to break up spats like this, was utterly distracted by his Tamaranean girlfriend. None of the Titans so much as acknowledged the new teenager who stepped into the store, a young man who paused in the doorway for a moment, looking with slight surprise from the store's proprietor to the ridiculously costumed heroes in front of him. The newcomer wore a unkempt looking school uniform, with shoddily ironed grey khaki pants, a similarly creased light blue button-up shirt (Which had been untucked from his pants and was unbuttoned from the chest up), and a tattered blue and red tie which he began to pull off.

Sidling around the two arguing superheroes, the schoolboy removed his rucksack and began searching for a good movie in the section marked "ACTION" in bright red signage. Eventually, at about the same time as Beast Boy managed to convince his raging robotic friend to just give _Tropic Thunder_try, and Starfire had pointed out some kind of romance flick (with the cover adorned by a dashing man in an opera mask and a red-haired female lead), the uniformed teenager decided on _Sin City._

The party of teen heroes and the party of one both approached the counter at the same time, placing their movie selections down as one and whipping their heads around collectively to look at the opposing side.

There was a moment's silence, the scruffy teenager sized up the Titans, to him looking like a bunch of fools more suited to signing autographs at an anime convention than saving the city, and they were taking in every musky ounce of the boy before them. He smelled like sweat and dirt, the kind of smell one attains by either working out all day, brawling, or running for ones life, and in actuality he been doing all three in moderation. His curly hair appeared black at first, but upon close inspection turned out to be a very _very _dark shade of brown, with a few choice curls actually becoming blond from considerable time in the sun. His skin was a natural tan colour, hinting a Native heritage, and when combined with his hair this made him look almost unmistakably Colombian or Cuban or even Middle Eastern. The hair in question was tied back into a small curly ponytail, with the blond patches creating the illusion of dyed streaks, and on his forehead was a black bandanna with stylized skull-and-crossbones designs about it. The face below the black cloth was hard and stoic-looking, with a don't-mess-with-me expression and old scars from a pimple and beating filled puberty, he had thick sideburns and the scruffy beginnings of a goatee growing on his chin which looked like he'd purposely neglected to shave it.

The schoolboy met the Boy Wonder's eyes, or at least he stared into the white lens in front of them, for almost a full thirty seconds, before stepping back.

"You guys were here first, go ahead."

The Titans hesitated not a second longer, checked out their videos, and exited the store.

Outside, the teenage heroes walked quietly for about two minutes until Beast Boy just exploded with questions.

"What was THAT back there!? Who was he!? Did anyone else get a funny feeling around him!? I almost pissed myself, and I can turn into a T-Rex!"

"I concur, Robin, who was that strange man?" Starfire's almost sing-song voice asked as she locked arms with her boyfriend.

The ex-sidekick was a bit taken aback at the alien's public display of affection, but did not pull away, instead composing himself and answering with as much trademark smoothness as he could manage. "Uh, well it doesn't matter, he wasn't a man, he was a student and we're Teen Titans, we've got no reason to be afraid of ordinary teens."

BB and Cy did their best to stifle their giggles at Robin's obvious blush, but by the end of his speech they were back to normal. "Well if you ask me that guy looked like one bad dude," Cyborg remarked, "If he _was _a villain, I can't imagine what kinda powers he'd have."

"Probably the power to make people piss themselves."

The group shared a chuckle at one of their impish friends rare funny jokes.

"Oooh, the Movie Store Maniac!" Cy cooed in mock terror.

They laughed again, harder this time, and soon they were guffawing all the way home, pointing out strange-looking people and trying to guess an alias and a fitting superpower.

-------

"Hey, Red, you won't guess who I just ran into..." The schoolboy said into his cellular phone as he exited the video store, black plastic back in hand with the movie inside. He walked in the opposite direction the Titans had gone, heading deeper into the mall rather than toward the exits. "Wow, yeah, it _was_ the Titans... Nah, the purple-haired one wasn't with 'em... Shut up man, I was NOT disappointed..."

He continued walking through the mall until he came to an ATM machine, a few metres away from which he stopped and continued his conversation.

"Yeah, no worries, I'll pay it directly from the machine... I'll steal it of course!" He said this rather loudly and a few passersby gave him suspicious looks. "Hey listen I gotta go, have the suit ready for when I get back."

As the schoolboy hung up, a wealthy-looking man in a business suit strutted up to the ATM, jostling a few kids and their flustered mother out of the way as he did so. One of the children dropped his ice cream because of this and suddenly exploded into tears, causing the single mother to glare at the man's back wearily, there were deep circles under her eyes which suggested late nights working and tending the kids. The scruffy teenager witnessed all this and immediately decided the course of action.

"Hey bub!" He approached the businessman and pushed him rather forcefully. "Where do you get off making kids cry and not even apologising?"

The man gave the schoolboy a dirty, holier-than-thou look and went back to punching in his bank account number, after his money emerged the man tried to walk away but the teenager grabbed him by the front of his blazer.

"Aren't you gonna at least buy the kid a new ice-cream?" He asked with fire in his eyes.

The mother looked up from the small child she was hushing.

A sneer was the only response from the 'nobleman'.

The teenager's eyes narrowed, "Watch yourself tough guy..." Then he released the man and let him stride away.

"Not to worry!" He exclaimed to the family, bright smile wiping away the previous scowl. "I've got my _own_ card." He suddenly flipped a credit card from his sleeve to between his index finger and thumb, then he approached the ATM, inserted the card, and inputted _the_ _business man's account number_. The machine accepted the code and queried him on the next step, so he went ahead and withdrew all the money which the machine would allow, approximately fourteen hundred dollars.

Unbeknown to both the business man and the single mother, the schoolboy had pilfered the card from his victim's coat pocket, and had... _extracted _the account number from his mind, it was a gift, the kind which meant that the business man will never again be able to recall that code, nor will he ever recall that he even had a credit card in the first place.

"Here, buy the kids another round of frozen treats, on me, and then go ahead and pick up something nice for yourself." The scruffy teenager smiled as he handed the mother the all the money. She looked at him very sceptically, but the warmth in his eyes was so genuine that she actually smiled back, hugged him, and walked away. But before she could, the boy also handed her a small black 'business card' with a red letter X on one side and a strange phone number on the other.

"If you're ever in need, or just want someone to babysit, gimme a call." The schoolboy said this with a flashy grin before pivoting jovially on one foot and heading off to empty another ATM.

-------

That night Raven went out, she could not bear to sit and watch the distasteful comedy nor the sappy romance films which her teammates had decided on, and so she gave up trying to drown out the sound of their laughter with meditation and simply teleported outside the building. She levitated above the roof for a few moments, watching the sun set rather beautifully, before flying off toward the city.

She landed in front of her favourite depressing cafe, a small little place built into the basement of a small office building, and was thus only opened from early evening to early morning. In reality it was a bar of sorts, but the owner was German, and where he came from kids of at least sixteen could sit until midnight, then they left so that the grown-ups could smoke their joints and what ever else adult Goths did. In actuality, Raven had never actually given any thought as to whether the bartender realized that she was underage, but she never ordered anything alcoholic anyway, and often _did _stay after the adults started smoking.

The place was affectionately and aptly named _The Circus_, because all manner of freaks and mutants tended to hang out there, Raven being no exception. Though she rarely socialized with the rest of them, she felt accepted, because plenty of them had pasts just as dark or powers just as dangerous.

Descending down, the crimson halls made it look like one was walking into Hell, which normally would have been frightening given Raven's heritage, but here, it was comforting.

The hooded girl acknowledged the owner with a glance, and he glanced back, it was a sort of greeting for those who'd rather not speak. Then she retreated into her favourite spot in the very corner, where she began to listen quietly to the poetry being read by the boy on stage with about nine hundred body piercings. He spoke about war and peace, love and hate, particularly lost love, unrequited love, being loveless.

The spell caster smiled in a grim sort of way, pulled down her hood, and closed her eyes.


	2. Rockin' Around

_Disclaimer: DC comics holds the trademark for the Batman Series and the Teen Titans, not me, I'm just a humble and slightly obsessed fan..._

___**Sorry those of you reading this, but I've had an epiphany, and have decided to rewrite this story, the new version can be found under the name: "Battle Not With Monsters", and will no longer feature Red X as a central character (But he will still be important!) I know, you probably think there's nothing wrong with the current version, but at work today I was thinking about Red X's character, and realized that he was becoming too benevolent, so now he's been 'replaced' by an original character...... as far as you know.**_

___**Here's the introduction to the newer draft:**_

* * *

Prologue: 

**Rockin' Around**

Christmas time; jolliest time of the year.

Jump City glowed, as it did every night, but around this season one could swear that it glowed a little than usual. For once, the streets were free of death and terror, children played and couples smooched and Santas... ho-ed. It seemed that even the criminals, the killers and the psychos and the rapists, had holiday shopping to do. The big day was fast approaching, and all the procrastinators had to either grab gifts now or receive a lashing later from their loved ones. During the holiday season, the American population could pretty much be divided into two groups, people who got great gifts early, and people who struggled to get mediocre ones late.

Robin and Beast Boy belonged to the latter group.

The two heroes were walking, out of costume, in the main plaza of the city, where various vendors had set up shop in the streets, selling cheap knickknacks and handmade items. If you could dodge all the frantic mothers heading for a sale or the distraught fathers dashing for something their daughter had demanded, you'd soon realize that all the good stuff was on sale. Unfortunately, all the good stuff had also been sold, the signs only remained up to attract suckers dumb enough to wait until the day before Christmas Eve to go gift-shopping. Places like Target and Wall-Mart were closed by now, but that didn't mean much in a city full of street-smart hustlers. One could still find anything from a bootlegged watch or a pirated DVD to heroin at half-price or two joints for the price of one.

A few of the more honest vendors were selling handwoven scarfs or festive sweaters, however over the years those had become less popular seeing as _after _Christmas it became somewhat difficult to wear red and green clothing unless you were some sort of costumed vigilante.

By now, the two young Titans were beyond desperate, having been searching for hours still being unable to finding anything suitable for their remaining loved ones.

Beast Boy had yet to pick up anything for both of his bird-themed comrades, Robin and Raven. The simple reason behind this was that Raven was an incredibly hard person to please, and Robin was so rich that there wasn't much he didn't have. Plus the slick team leader was completely uninterested in most of the things most normal people were, he was obsessed with being a hero, so what kind of gift does one get a friend who loves crime fighting but already possesses every every tool a crime fighter could ever want?

The Boy Wonder himself may not have shown it on his face, seeing as he was wearing his trademark mask as always, but he was inwardly just as distraught as his green-skinned partner. He had asked everyone else on the team, and they'd all told him the same thing, Starfire was an easy person to buy gifts for. She was easily fascinated by all manner of Earthly objects, so get her an Earthly object which she is unfamiliar with.

But Robin wanted to get her something... special.

Something she'd cherish more than the mustard she always carried with her, or the enormous larvae she kept for a pet; something she'd remember...

"Uh, Robin, hello? I'm talking to you!"

The ex-sidekick snapped out of his daze and turned to Beast Boy.

"I_ said, _wouldn't this be a great gift for Star?"

The changeling was holding up a book titled "world". Robin took it and flipped through it, it was full of pictures of various places and peoples of Earth, specifically all the most spectacular, Antarctica, New Zealand, the Himalayas, India, Afghanistan, et cetera.

"... Yeah, she'd love it." Robin said blandly, handing the book back and continuing further down the plaza. As Beast Boy paused to pay for the book, soemthing caught Robin's eye atop a nearby roof, the end of a tattered cape whipping away from the edge. His eyes narrowed.

Getting on the roof was not a problem, Robin never went anywhere without at least _part _of of his gear. He was still weary though, because without his armoured costume he'd be in trouble should anyone be deciding to ambush him.

The Boy Wonder blinked twice rapidly, activating his mask's scan lens. He couldn't detect any other life form on the roof, but he still had a hunch that-

"Hey kid, how's it going!?" An electronically voice asked, though the source was nowhere to be seen. Robin's head whipped around wildly, and he brought his fists up to bear, but he was taken completely by surprise when an invisible arm wrapped around his throat and a fist began rubbing into the top of his head.

"Merry almost-Christmas Robby!" Rex X laughed as he released Robin from the noogie.

The Titan paused a moment to run a hand through his hair, pushing it back into it's proper position, before suddenly lunging forward at his now-visible antagonizer. But the X-themed thief teleported behind the Boy Wonder and just barely grabbed the scruff of his hoodie before he lunged himself right off the building.

Robin responded by whipping around with a punishing roundhouse kick, but X ducked under the blow, grabbing the vigilante's other ankle and pulling it out from under him.

"Cool it, kiddo, it's the Holidays, I'm not here to fight." Red X said, holding up his hands as if there was a gun pointed at him.

"Are you here to give back the suit you stole!?" Robin growled, climbing to his feet and taking a stance.

A breeze picked up X's cape and caused it to wave lazily behind him, it was only then that Robin noticed the green duffel bag slung over the thief's shoulder.

"Fortunately, no," X's mechanized tone responded, and then he removed the bag, sliding it over to his rival. "But here's a peace offering, gifts for you and the rest of the Titans, you can take credit for them if you want."

Robin activated his scan visor, but the bag seemed free of any traps; however he did furiously note that no weapons were detected in Red X's suit either.

"Why?" Was the Boy Wonder's simple question, asked through gritted teeth.

"Uh, because it's Christmas...?" X answered, throwing his arms up in mock defeat again. "And because I've seen the gifts _you_ got, gotta tell ya, they suck."

"Were you spying on me!?"

"What- No! No, I ran into you a couple of times in the mall, jeez."

Robin's expression hardened.

"Just because I'm a theif by a night doesn't mean I don't _occasionally _pay for things."

The Boy Wonder reached over to grasp the bag, but his hand was smacked away.

"Not so fast kiddo, I even _wrapped _those babies, so how about a little appreciation?"

"...Thanks."

"You're welcome." One could hear the satisfaction just in X's tone.

Robin picked up the bag, finally, though never took his eyes off his living antithesis. "You _must_ want something for this."

"Righto, I need you to crash Slade's party over-"

"What do you know about Slade!?" The ex-sidekick suddenly blurted, drawing a birdarang. The thief raised a metaphorical eyebrow, before continuing.

"Over at that new hospital on Thirty Fith and Fourth, he's doing some bad stuff, like always, kidnapped a friend of mine, the family's disappeared too."

"...What kind of friend?"

"The childhood kind, me and him used to get into all sorts of trouble... tagging buildings, skipping school, you wouldn't know, I'm sure that you don't have any _real _friends, thanks to the old Batman."

That struck a nerve. "Get out of my sight before I get Beast Boy to Swallow you..." Robin turned around and walked to the edge. "I'll think about saving your friend."

"Uh huh, sure, I'm sure you'll really give a lot of thought about whether or not you wanna get your ass kicked by Slade again." X chuckled, before tapping the buckle of his belt.

When the Boy Wonder turned around the theif was gone.


End file.
